Can Bikram yoga build biceps?

Sonia Frenette introduces David Leafe to the muscle-building benefits of Bikram yoga

David Leafe

12:01AM BST 07 Jul 2008

Envious of Andy Murray's flexed muscles, David Leafe tries his arm at Bikram

I suppose I should be feeling sorry for Andy Murray after his departure from Wimbledon last Wednesday, but in fact I am finding it difficult to forgive him.

In those few glorious days before his defeat by Rafael Nadal, Murray explained his physical transformation of late. Once a gangling teenager, the 21-year-old is well on his way to his target weight of 13 stone. At 6ft 3in, with a body-fat content of only 6.5 per cent, he must be packing an impressive amount of muscle, as was suggested in his bizarre display of bicep flexing at the end of his riveting fourth-round match against Richard Gasquet.

The secret? Like George Clooney, Elle Macpherson and Daniel Craig, Murray has revealed that he is a convert to Bikram yoga. This involves performing a series of eye?watering contortions at 42C - a temperature at which most sensible people would be lying still in an air-conditioned room.

Lying still is exactly what I like to do on a weekday morning but, intrigued by the changes in Murray's physique, the Telegraph challenged me to attend a session at Bikram Hot Yoga, the studio in south-west London where he perspired his way to peak condition.

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Just the thought made me yearn for a cold beer, and a search on the internet did not calm my fears. It led me to a photograph of what appeared to be a headless man, but turned out to be Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram yoga. (He does actually have a head, but he had bent himself double in the picture and tucked it between his knees - where else?)

Bikram Hot Yoga is one of hundreds of centres worldwide licensed by this guru, who, whether it's upside down or not, has his head very well screwed on. Setting up his first yoga studio in Los Angeles in 1973, Choudhury copyrighted the technique he claims offers many benefits.

These include building strength by contracting and flexing muscles at the cellular level, massaging the lymph nodes to help the lymphatic system work more effectively, and flushing out the arteries and veins by alternately blocking off, then suddenly releasing, the blood supply.

Since then, he has capitalised on the Bikram brand with a range of official clothing, jewellery and DVDs, not to mention CDs of him singing his own songs.

Choudhury was born in Calcutta in 1946, began practising yoga at the age of four and won the National Yoga Championships when he was only 13. I, on the other hand, am extremely inflexible. Taking my place on a rubber mat for my 10am session, water bottle in hand, I found it hard even to sit cross-legged. This did not bode well.

I considered making a dash for it as our teacher, Sonia Frenette, did the pre-class medical checks. "Any joint problems?" she asked. "Any pregnancies?"

I wondered whether just looking pregnant would get me out of the class - with my stomach pushed outwards, I might easily pass for six months gone - but before I could say: "Is there anywhere I can get an ice cream?" we were off with various exercises that might have been considered "warming up" had I not already been boiling hot.

During the 90 minutes that followed, I realised why Choudhury refers jokingly to his studios as "torture chambers". My body simply refused at first to get into half of the positions that Sonia suggested, most of which appeared to be named after animals. At times I felt like I was doing a zoological hokey-cokey as we moved through the eagle, the camel, the rabbit, and the half tortoise: "You put your left leg around, and your right arm up... and your head where your ankle used to be."

The problem was that I soon became so confused that I could no longer distinguish left from right and, with my sweaty hands slipping on my glistening limbs, I struggled to keep up.

As I glanced around the room of 20 students - roughly half men, half women - I noticed I was the only man still wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Most of the others were showing off well-toned upper bodies - gleaming with sweat as the session continued.

This was intimidating, to say the least, but something kept me going - the realisation that I was gradually stretching into poses that would have been impossible unless my limbs had been loosened by the heat. I astonished myself by completing the class without a single break, although Sonia pointed out that beginners use only about 10 per cent of their bodies as they master the moves during their first sessions.

Using 100 per cent of their bodies, more advanced practitioners of Bikram yoga perform the movements far more vigorously than I was able to, and are said to reap the benefits accordingly, but I am not sure I would take up Sonia's invitation to return.

I have decided I need to find a form of exercise that's a little less intense. Anyone for tennis?

Bikram yoga: the basics

Practitioners do 26 breathing and stretching exercises in a room heated to 42C (107F), which is said to mimic conditions in India, making it easier to stretch and promoting sweating to flush out toxins. The postures are designed to improve strength, endurance and flexibility. Once mastered, they give a thorough cardiovascular workout.